


the morning doesn't reach us (not until we want it to)

by Pille



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Accidental Sleepover, First Kiss, Fluff, Humor, Ingrid Brandl Galatea Is So Done, M/M, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Secret Relationship, claude and hilda being besties + partners in crime, ingrid told felix to play nice, mostly blue lions & golden deer, no beta we die like the death knight when lysithea is in range, so felix tries his best, until intentional sleepover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:29:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29986350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pille/pseuds/Pille
Summary: Okay – Sylvain think about something! Outside was an assassin, waiting for their opportunity to end your life. But inside was Felix, probably thinking about a more gruesome way to kill you.Ashe and Felix form a closer relationship – while shenanigans from the Blue Lions and Golden Deer ensue.
Relationships: Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert/Felix Hugo Fraldarius





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title is from nocturnal creatures by bastille!

Ingrid had been right. He would never admit it to her face, but now was not the time to think about his honor. It really hadn’t been a good idea to date a girl who wanted to become an assassin with a passion as big as Mercedes’ passion for baked goods. But she had been cute, and a talented sparring partner. But all good things come to an end, which was why Sylvain had only one goal: Run away from that cute (but since she was in a bad mood, very scary) girl into the den of someone way scarier – Felix. He would be the only one who could protect Sylvain – if he wanted to or not. He had to, right? They’ve been friends for so long, and had sworn to always be side by side until the very end. And that end was nearing for Sylvain at an alarming rate.

Felix’s door, aka the point of interest, was already in Sylvain’s reach. He was just two doors away and couldn’t see anyone dangerous (besides Hilda, but she was talking to some big guy, probably about transferring her workload of the day to him). Maybe in another life Sylvain and Hilda would have made a great pair – but alas. This was not the time to think about his next conquest. He looked to his left and to his right – he could see no more people, only a little cat, sitting around, busy with cleaning itself. No one would suspect anything, if Sylvain would just –

“YOU LITTLE BRAT!”

Oh no.

He ran. Faster than he ever believed he would be able to. Hilda and her friend (or whatever) looked at him confused, but didn’t do much more than that while the redhead ran for his life crashing into Felix’ room. Good thing she was so mad or else she probably would have been quieter. When he reached safety, he shut the door audibly behind him, leaning against it. First, he had to catch his breath. But well. All that ends well is well, or whatever old people said. Two pairs of eyes were watching him – one with suspicion and one with concern. Wait what.

Sylvain just looked at them. Thinking. Figuring out. Was it a joke? Felix had been lying in bed, with Ashe…. ? Even spooning the smaller one. Ashe didn’t look like he was being held hostage – quite the opposite, he had looked very comfortable until Sylvain had burst into the room. Their hugging since then had stopped or at least wasn’t as tight anymore, Felix sat up and looked annoyed. Oh no. (Felix had been giving the smaller one little kisses on his neck or did he just imagine that? They were so comfortable, it was shocking.)

Okay – Sylvain think about something! Outside was an assassin, waiting for their opportunity to end your life. But inside was Felix, probably thinking about a more gruesome way to kill you. Maybe he could even come up with a more unearthly way than the soon-to-be assassin would even be creative enough to think about (Sylvain was not sure if that was a compliment)…

“If you love looking at me that much, ask Ignatz to paint you a picture,” came the snarky remark from Felix, “Search him, get lost.”

Ashe was the embodiment of embarrassment, his green eyes were focusing on the ground, there was a red tint to his cheeks and he fumbled with the covers. Was there something special on the ground that was more interesting to look at than Sylvain? No, not really, but Sylvain had to think, he had to stall for time.

“Yes good idea, where do you think I would be able to find Ignatz now? Maybe on the training grounds? Or out and about with Shamir? She does training for archers, right? Special training and such. She is kind of scary, don’t you think? I mean in a really cool way, no offense.”

Good strategy, confuse them, talk about things, they can’t just throw him out and let him get killed out there. With a loud sigh Felix stood up, walked over and threw him out.

“Rude.” was all Sylvain could say to the closed door of Felix’s room. Well time to sprint off to somewhere safe.

Inside the room the mood had drastically changed. Ashe was sitting on the bed, fumbling with the blanket, still fixating on the floor.

“Should I go?” he asked in a whisper, without even looking up. Felix let out another sigh, a smaller one, more for himself than out of annoyance of Sylvain’s antics. He had heard the girl chasing Sylvain. If Ashe hadn’t been with him, he would have brought Sylvain on a silver platter to her – he probably deserved whatever she wanted to do with him. But not now. He sat next to Ashe, put an arm around the smaller one, saying: “No, stay.”

* * *

Sylvain found Ingrid sitting in the library, next to her Linhardt was sleeping or acting as if – he didn’t trust the black eagles. They were all very intense people … And then there was Linhardt. It just had to be an act. But he seemed to be on Ingrid's good side, so Sylvain wouldn’t voice these thoughts, for now. There were more important matters to tend to anyway.

“Ingrid, I have seen something.” Sylvain said without being able to contain his grin, even if he wanted to. She tried to ignore him, but he just sat down opposite her and leaned in closer.

“What is it?” She tried to be quiet, even though there weren’t many people in the library at the moment (When were there ever?). Sylvain looked at Linhardt – he really was sleeping, or maybe having a mental breakdown, who knew? The green haired guy used his arms as a pillow, a book about something boring was lying in front of him – sure explains why he fell asleep. This meant that Sylvain could safely continue his little story.

“The other day – it was yesterday to be precise, I ran away from Mel, you know, the hot assassin girl?” Ingrid sighed and made an effort to look back at the book in front of her – about handling wyverns and pegasi? Boring.

“Listen. I saw something yesterday, something extraordinary, and something none of us is or was expecting!”

At first, he could only hear a loud sigh from Ingrid.

“Yes, I heard you were hiding behind Ignatz. The poor guy.” shesaid quietly, while still acting like she was reading her book. She didn’t even sound the slightest bit sorry for Ignatz or interested in Sylvain, but he knew her very well, he had already grabbed her attention.

“Okay, yeah, sure. But he is a good cover, just a tip if you ever have to run away from someone, no one wants to hurt him and he tried to help out. Maybe I owe him one.” He got sidetracked again. Yes, maybe he should play wingman for the archer. Too bad that the ball had happened already… But there would be other chances to repay his debt. Maybe get him a new haircut or clothes. The Golden Deer people made questionable fashion choices, even though Ignatz was not the worst of them.

“Sylvain,” Ingrid snapped him out of his thoughts, and looked up wearing a neutral expression, “do we have to talk about this again? You can’t go around and break everyone’s heart here. She had every right to be angry. She was devastated, okay? She thought you liked her. That’s mean.”

Linhard also joined the conversation without looking up or moving, so it was muffled, but Sylvain could understand every word. “Poor girl. She was mad and then she just cried.”

Ouch. Sylvain wasn’t there to be sad, but to share great news. Time to deflect. “But she seemed happy with Ignatz back there, so I did something really good.”

Linhardt and Ingrid seemed to be connected – since their sighing was very coordinated – impressive.

“Listen,” Ingrid closed her book quietly, looking into Sylvain’s eyes, “you have to stop. As we have told you a million times: If you don’t want a girlfriend, then just communicate that to the girls you are dating. Find someone with the same opinion, be happy, let others be happy.”

“Okay, but –“

“No, promise me. For this whole month I want no girl drama. At least this month, please, I have my exam on the 28th.”

A whole month, but it was already the 5th, so only about 23 days. He could make it.

“Okay, so that means, I don’t date the whole month – “

“No flirting also!” she interrupted him again.

“Okay, no flirting, no dating until the 28th and then I tell you the things I found out and we focus on that.” She seemed confused, maybe about him giving in so easily.

“Is it a deal?” he asked.

“What does one thing have to do with the other?” Linhardt asked.

“I don’t know, I don’t care, I just have to tell you this!” Sylvain could not wait any longer, he had to spill the beans. It was frustrating, really. He would’ve done that the day before, if he wouldn’t have been so busy with hiding behind Ignatz and getting made fun of by the other students belonging to the Golden Deer. (“Maybe you should just go to dinner with her – that will make her calm down,” had been Raphael's less than helpful advice, “Helps me to calm down.” Then he had laughed thunderously.)

The blonde was skeptical, he could see it in her eyes. But she really didn’t want to fail her exam. And she wouldn’t admit it now, but this gossip had to be interesting. Plus she wanted to see how well that would work out. Sylvain was competitive, maybe she could really have a few quiet days without him running around searching for his next fling. (And her having to fix it afterwards)

“Okay, deal.” They shook their hands. But Ingrid still had to seal the deal completely by saying: “Linhardt is our witness. If you break the deal, he is going to do something about it – I don’t have time.”

Now Linhardt looked up, a grimace on his face and his voice tired. “Oh bother.”

Sylvain didn’t care. “Okay, so.” He looked around, there were still no new important faces in the library. Now he could spin this tale, make it as interesting as possible, get his audience hooked. “Yesterday, before hiding behind little Ignatz, I tried to hide in Felix’s room.”

“I figured,” she said, “but he probably was on her side.”

“Hey, Felix is my bestest and oldest friend, he will protect me always and forever. He loves me very dearly.”

Ingrid and Linhardt weren’t impressed.

“What do you even know?” he said in Linhardt's general direction. But now was not the time. “Whatever, okay, so. Doesn’t matter. Because!” He had to make a pause, to keep them on their toes. “Our dearest friend Felix, who would always protect me against any harm to my beautiful face or person, threw me out.” Before he could get any snarky remarks, he added a loud “BECAUSE!” while gesticulating wildly, which got a few people to throw looks at him. “He wasn’t alone.”

Still not impressed, Ingrid asked: “He was studying with Annette? Or His Highness was there, arguing with him?”

Linhardt nodded. Why was this weirdo so invested? Sylvain didn’t trust him. But no, his story was still in need of the big happy ending: “Okay, let me elaborate. He was not alone, because he was busy cuddling with...”

He gestured to them to let them guess, but Ingrid was a killjoy, as usual: “I don’t want to know.”

Sylvain had come so far now, he would not let that slide. “Wrong guess!”

Linhardt on the other hand, wanted to play the game, now sounding not so tired anymore: “Lysithea maybe… She seems scary, like him.”

Even Ingrid was surprised, forgetting the important issue at hand to ask: “You think Lysithea is scary?”

Linhardt nodded again. Giving him the weird look he deserved for that comment (who would be afraid of her?), Sylvain gave them a hint: “It was not a person from Golden Deer.”

“Black Eagles then!,” Ingrid chimed in, but tried to be quieter, she seemed to have fun as well now, “It’s not Hubert, is it? That would be scary.” She chuckled. “Mh, but to be honest… Maybe… Bernie? She’s nice, they would fit, and she’s also secluded and …” But she saw Sylvain shaking his head.

“It’s one of our own.” he said, trying to sound grave. Even he could feel that he failed miserably at that, the grin on his face didn’t want to leave. He cherished every emotion that crossed Ingrid’s face while she put things together in her head. Confusion, surprise, and even a hint of offense maybe. She was hooked. Oh, that was so worth it.

“Annette and Dimitri are out, I guess?” Linhardt asked. Everything that was said seemed to confuse Ingrid further: “You just call him Dimitri?”

Linhardt shrugged. “That’s his name I guess.”

“I don’t want to know now,” said Ingrid, “I changed my mind, I have to study now.” She took one of the books lying on the table and opened it, flipping a few pages and looking as if to search for something. Sylvain had seen her mistake, she had taken Linhardt’s book, she didn’t fool anyone.

“Well it is too late now.” With this announcement from Sylvain came a quiet “oh no” from Ingrid. “Any last guesses before you will know the truth, the full truth and nothing but it?” he asked the two. Ingrid still kept up her farce, but he could see her waver. Linhardt just waited, looking vaguely interested in how this would turn out. “I saw him cuddling … with our beloved, littlest, cutest archer.”

Ingrid's reaction was immediate, she froze and he could hear her almost whispering: “Oh no.”

His audience of two was quiet again until Linhardt cleared his throat to clarify: “You mean Ashe, right?”

Sylvain nodded slowly for the dramatic effect. That must be enough. “Oh no.” Ingrid repeated.

“Oh yes!” disagreed Sylvain. “I wonder how long they have kept that from us. But now it all makes sense, the little looks, the little touches, the – “

Ingrid shook her head vehemently. “Oh no.”

“When did they look or touch?” Linhardt asked, now also visibly confused.

“I don’t know, I thought it would make sense in hindsight or something?” was all Sylvains could say about that. He had been as surprised as they were now. (Well Linhardt didn’t seem too surprised, but if Sylvain thought more about it, Linhardt generally didn’t seem very interested in anything that wasn’t boring.) Now thinking back on it, he was also a tiny bit mad at Felix for not telling him anything about his thing with Ashe. Sylvain always came to Felix to tell his best friend everything about his conquests. That mostly happened while they trained and Felix acted like he didn’t listen, but Sylvain knew, somewhere deep down, Felix really cared and listened.

Ingrid only repeated her sentiment of “oh no”. She did not like where this was going. Felix was their friend, their long-time friend, she would even consider him as one of her best friends. If he had not come to them to tell them, maybe they should not know. But would he ever have told them? Maybe he was scared. That didn’t really fit to the Felix she knew, but that was his first romantic relationship – or was it? Maybe he was doing a Sylvain on Ashe. “Oh no.” No, he wouldn’t. They all loved Ashe. He wouldn’t. Would he? Ashe was naïve sometimes, but he wouldn’t be so naïve? And Felix was able to be nice, if he wanted to, sometimes… maybe? “Oh no.”

Sylvain nodded. “We get it, oh no. But I think they are cute.”

Linhardt was also lost in thought, but in another direction. Funny, these Blue Lions. He himself was not so surprised with a new relationship. A lot of people were at Garrech Mach to find a suitable partner. Some even ended their academic career, when they fulfilled that goal. He would lie by saying that he didn’t think about it as well. Searching for someone who would do all the work, so that he could take a long nap for forever maybe. But he had never considered Felix and Ashe ending up together. “Well opposites attract, right?”

Sylvain was happy. For his friend, yes, but more about the fact that he got this kind of information on his own. Before Ingrid could continue with her “Oh no.”, he stood up. Really, why was she so shocked? “And now what?”

“We take a nap?” Linhardt asked.

“Having one character trait is not endearing!” snapped Sylvain.

“Okay, skirt chaser…” mumbled Linhardt with a small smile. Ingrid, still with Linhardts book (about magical potions apparently?) in front of her, had to sort out her thoughts. How would they continue with their relationship? Would they be open about it? Would Felix go on a rampage and kill everyone that knew of him and Ashe? Would Ashe’s heart be broken now? Maybe Ashe had been the one who wanted to keep it a secret. Yes maybe… Because? Ingrid needed a plan. Should she act like she doesn’t know anything? Best idea. Linhardt also has to keep quiet, she would make sure of it. But before she could share any thoughts with these two, a familiar face came into view.

“Oh, I hear gossiping,” Claude walked over to them, one of his charismatic smiles on his face, “Care to keep me up to date?”

Sylvain was ready to spill. Ingrid stopped him. “Something terrible happened.” Oh no, oh no. She had to protect the small blossom of Felix’s and Ashe's relationship. (At least that was the version she imagined in her head now: Ashe and Felix being embarrassed about being caught and being afraid of anyone judging them - even though that really didn’t fit either one. But Ingrid panicked.)

“Ah yes, I saw Sylvie behind Ignatz yesterday, very funny. I hope she didn’t see you anymore after that.” Claude said to Sylvain, a small smile still on his face, reminiscing the day before. Sylvain also owed him one, Claude had tried to pour oil on troubled water by talking about it and acting as a mediator, successfully or else Sylvain wouldn’t stay in that library in one piece.

Sylvain took the opportunity he was given by announcing: “Yes, but that’s not the greatest news. We have a new relationship happening.”

Claude was caught by surprise. “A new one? Which one was the old one? And who is “we”? You three?”

Ingrid just said: “Yes.”, whereas Sylvain gave a confused “No.” and Linhardt just asked: “What?”

Claude shrugged. “Okay, you do you. Seems … lively.”

“No, listen,” Sylvain shook his head, “Ingrid is a bit confused. I mean a new relationship involving our friends, you know. And it’s so good.” Sylvain had this grin again.

Ingrid had to jump in to end this immediately. “Okay, yes that is true. But…,” she looked up to Claude, hoping the scheme-master would understand this boundary, “Maybe they don’t want everyone to know.”

“Ah I see. You caught them.” Sylvain nodded eagerly. Claude scratched his head. “I must say, I am intrigued, but if Ingrid is against me knowing, then I better keep myself out of this business.”

“Yes that seems to be the best solution,” Ingrid agreed, “thank you.”

Sylvain was annoyed. But Ingrid… If she said so. Also it really was not Claude’s or any of the Deers business. The Blue Lions however… “Okay, I agree. Yes true. But still. Do you want to guess who it involves?”

Claude was grinning again. “Sure, okay. Let me think… Who seems to be hanging around a lot recently?...” He looked around, searching for something in Ingrid's eyes maybe? “Well. Since it probably doesn’t involve you three – I would guess maybe someone out of your house and the Black Eagles?”

Before Sylvain could say anything (suspicious), Ingrid said: “You think it does not involve the Golden Deer?”

Claude was taken aback shortly. “I would know. Would I? Oh no.”

“Oh no.” Ingrid agreed(?). Linhardt patted her on the back.

“You didn’t pair up your ex with Ignatz, did you?” Now Claude was laughing, to which Sylvain could just respond: “I hope not.”

* * *

Ingrid was not nervous. No never. It was an accident, yes. She accidentally woke up way too early the next day to eat the fastest breakfast ever (with Raphael, who was impressed to say the least) and sit an hour too early in the classroom (first row) to wait. Yes, she read a bit in a book, maybe she was holding it upside down for the first ten minutes, but no one was there to judge her. Manuela would hold a lesson that day, it was something about strategic healing and how the one getting healed can be helpful in the process. Yes, that would be interesting, that was why she was there so early. Not so that she would be able to avoid meeting anybody (let alone Ashe or Felix) and say something wrong. She didn’t really understand why she was avoiding them. On one hand, she was happy (if their relationship was a good one), but on the other hand… She shouldn’t even know about this, and she wasn’t the best at acting.

Well, she was ready, reading her book (maybe it was not hers, maybe it belonged to Sylvain, but hey, she wanted to know everything about axes, one could never learn enough). Until someone was standing next to her. She couldn’t let her guard down now. That menacing stare, could it be Felix?

“Ingrid?” That was not the voice she expected. She turned to see Lorenz. He did not menacingly stare at her, far from it. She was going crazy, probably. But that also was not really good news.

“Ehrm, hi Lorenz, good morning how are you?”

Lorenz was polite, as always, acting as if he didn’t notice her weird behaviour. “I am well. How are you feeling today?”

Suspicious. Something was happening. “I am fine. Just trying to get ahead, you know. I have an important exam this month. Then I am allowed to fly on my Pegasus.” Oh no, she talked nervously. Did he hear that?

“I am happy to hear that. You will exceed.” he said while nodding.

“Yes, thank you,” Ingrid replied, still not sure what was happening, “but… Ehm. What are you doing here?”

Lorenz looked at her face full of confusion with a hint of concern, hand on his chin. Maybe she had really eaten too fast, maybe there was food all over her face – embarrassing. Especially in front of Lorenz, someone who really cared about being presentable and all that. But he let out a short laugh, looking amused. “Well class starts soon and I have to look over my notes again.”

“Yes, me too.” Ingrid agreed. Even though he could clearly see that the book in front of her were not her notes.

“But in our classroom?”

Ingrid’s eyes wandered away from Lorenz to the many big bright banners of the Golden Deer in this room. Yes, he was right. How could she sit there and think she was in her own classroom? “Oh no.”

“Indeed. A small mishap. You need not to be embarrassed, at least we could talk for a while. I will not tell anyone.”

“Oh no. I mean oh thank you.” She stood up quickly, grabbed her book about axes and ran off without looking back. Now there was one person more she wanted to avoid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> isn't lorenz someone we all should avoid? 
> 
> thank you for reading so far! In the next chapters we will time travel to the past to see how ashelix happened. 
> 
> i wrote all of this instead of studying, right now i have 7 chapters pre timeskip and something planned post timeskip, so let's see how far this goes.  
> i would like to say the next chapters aren't that dialogue heavy, but they probably are.  
> by the way this is the first time i am writing in english + uploading something, very scary  
> sorry for rambling  
> also golden deer best house


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> on todays schedule: survival training

When Ashe was thinking back on his relationship with Felix, he could easily conclude that it had started slow. Felix was almost famous for being in a bad mood most of the time. But somehow this was something Ashe didn’t experience that much first hand. It started a few months ago – the first time they had really interacted was on duty to take care of the horses. It was not a thing they both particularly cared about. Ashe was afraid of them, most of the horses were big, muscular and kind of scary. He didn’t think he would sit on a horse while on the battlefield – for a long while at least. Felix on the other hand wasn’t scared, just bored. He mostly kept to himself, Ashe saw that Felix took care while interacting with the horses, but cleaning up after them was swift and fast. They did not talk much. Ashe didn’t know what about – he was not really sure where Felix came from, what kind of family he belonged to or if it was important for the other one to be addressed in any special kind of way. There were just so many people he had met in his short time there, he got many of their backstories confused… So they worked together, mostly quiet. Until the end when Dorte acted up. Ashe didn’t understand why (in hindsight, maybe because he acted so scared that Dorte must have thought something was about to happen to him as well), and he couldn’t get him to calm down. Felix had been by his side quickly, calmed the horse down by talking quietly to him while petting the head lightly and holding him down by the reins. This was the first time he had seen another side to Felix, a more caring one, hearing the other one's voice in such a calm tone was a positive surprise.

“Thanks.” Ashe managed to say. Felix only nodded.

They didn’t have to fulfill any other duties together. Ashe's next duty had been to pick weeds with Dedue (where Dedue made his first joke (maybe?) about the soon-to-be-king’s way of picking weeds), and after that for most of the time, Ashe was just cleaning or cooking either with Annette or Mercedes. When Professor Byleth was put into place, it seemed like his strengths in cooking were most asked for. Which was okay for him, he liked being in the kitchen surrounded by food. He especially liked being paired up with Mercedes, she just had such a calming aura and they liked each other from day one, already chattering about books or the many new things happening around them.  


Gardening was something he did with Dedue in their free time. They could share their knowledge, learn new things, and just be together without talking much. In the beginning Ashe felt like he talked way too much, but Dedue didn’t mind, even encouraging him to talk, while mostly worked in silence. It was very serene to be with Dedue, it was a stretch to even call it work. Ashe knew much about his local plants and flowers, but Dedue was almost all knowing, recommending him books or explaining everything he knew to Ashe (this was when Ashe could listen to Dedue’s calming voice the longest). 

One day the serenity was broken when Felix graced them with his presence. When stepping into the greenhouse he was just looking at them both, assessing the situation. 

“Do you need help?” Dedue asked in his monotone voice, sounding sharper than when talking to Ashe. Felix told his quest in a similar monotone way, but there was something else Ashe could hear in his tone, annoyance maybe? Apparently he had to help out at the infirmary and was sent to fetch some healing plants from the greenhouse. Ashe set out to search them for him after obtaining the list from Felix. Since he knew where everything grew in this greenhouse by heart already after the few weeks of being at the monastery, it took less than two minutes to search for them and harvesting was also done in no time. 

“You work here often. Thank you.” was all Felix said. It looked like he wanted to add something, but then he turned around, said his goodbye and was off somewhere else. When Ashe joined Dedue back to tend to the vegetables, he tried to make some conversation. 

“You don’t like him?” 

But to Ashe’s surprise, Dedue voiced something different. “I do not know him that well to harbor dislike.” 

\--

He saw how Felix interacted with others – he was especially mean to Dimitri, but with Sylvain and Ingrid he seemed to be on friendly terms. With Sylvain it was more bantering, Ingrid and Felix however got along pretty well. Then there was Annette: Since she and Ashe shared cleaning duties often, they pretty easily formed a friendship. A few weeks into the semester, Annette and Ashe met up at the library to study together – but Ashe could immediately feel that something was off. The first sign was that she came later than usual, the second was that she stomped audibly and Ashe could almost feel the bad mood she dragged with her into the room. 

“The new professor must be mad! I have to help Felix with magic. Felix, who just wants to fight with his dumb sword or his dumb fists.” Annette said while putting her books on the table and taking a seat next to Ashe. Ashe had tried to cheer her up, but she just sighed.

“Well he isn’t too bad at it, but I don’t think he really wants it… So it’s a bit frustrating for both of us…”

Professor Byleth was already known around campus for “seeing something in the students”, some kind of talent they weren’t aware of. Apparently that was magic for Felix. Well, Ashe just was happy that he could continue archery.

At the beginning of the semester, Ashe didn’t really think he would fit in with the rest of the Blue Lions, for him they were all so… royal? They acted like nobility or if not (Sylvain for example), they had this aura around them. Ashe had learned how to behave and how to talk to all of the higher ranked people, but sometimes (in the beginning at least) he glanced jealously to the students belonging to the Golden Deer house, where everything seemed much … more loosely and easily. Sure, they probably all belonged to some kind of nobility more or less, but they behaved like a bunch of friends, just hanging out and having fun. Whereas his class had some… problems. Ashe could confidently say that he was (kind of?) friends with everyone – with Dimitri, it was hard, because Ashe overdid it, but with most of the others, he already shared some fond memories. But them all together… That still needed some work.

Well long story short – he didn’t have much to do with Felix, until it was their turn at  _ survival training _ . Their class had one goal: To “survive'' one whole night outside of the monastery gates. For this training they had hiked a few miles away early in the morning, but when reaching their destination they could still see the building in the distance, which made this task not too scarily realistic. Ashe’s assigned job was to collect plants and mushrooms, and to generally forage in the forest for anything useful. At first, he thought that this would be a job for Dedue and him, but the professors doing the survival training with them (Manuela and Byleth) decided that Dedue and Ingrid would be the ones fishing, Mercedes and Sylvain had to collect firewood, Annette and Dimitris job was to set up camp and Felix had to join Ashe in foraging. The only thing they knew before getting ready for this little mission was that the Black Eagles had done this a week before them. And apparently it had not worked out well, Sylvain told them the rumours he had gathered somewhere: It turned out that Hubert and Linhardt couldn’t work on their task of collecting firewood, due to some kind of dispute (Ashe didn’t want to know more, imagining Hubert with an axe in a bad mood was enough of a nightmare) and Bernadette had almost drowned while fishing.

The Golden Deer would be next – they already were happy to have this “vacation”. The Blue Lions however took it a bit more seriously. After a short introduction to survival training done by Manuela, everyone set out to do their jobs, while she herself stayed by the pond so no one would accidentally fall in (or whatever happened with Bernadette), and Byleth helped Annette and Dimitri to set up camp. 

When the survival training began, Felix and Ashe traveled into the forest with Mercedes and Sylvain, all the while Sylvain was chattering the whole time about nothing in particular. Mercedes showed Ashe some small ladybugs she saw on some leaves on a tree. This tree in particular would be the one that they would use to get their wood, so this was the place they said their goodbyes. 

Felix and Ashe went deeper into the forest. They both had weapons with them (“Maybe you will also catch a nice animal! A bear or something!” Sylvain had said while grinning from ear to ear), so they weren’t vulnerable. But Manuela had already told them that they would probably be bored for most of their trip. She had said that in such a manner that it almost sounded like she was sorry they wouldn’t be attacked by a raging wild animal.

“I will stay alert for intruders of any kind.” was what Felix said, once Ashe found the first edible mushrooms. 

“That’s good.” Ashe replied. Now he had to concentrate on his task, since he had to be careful. Some mushrooms could be poisonous or otherwise dangerous. He took his time collecting and inspecting the foraged goods, enjoying the few sunbeams coming through the treetops. It was a nice day, Ashe thought and he enjoyed this little change of scenery. Felix on the other hand, grew restless pretty quick. Looking out for predators that would never come was not the best use of his time. 

“Explain, how do you know that we will be alive at the end of the evening?”

Ashe did what was asked of him, while Felix sat down next to him on the ground and tried to see the differences. He let Ashe explain his “strategy”, how he rather let the ones he didn’t know enough about alone than taking them. Ashe also tried to show him the differences in colour, even showed him a poisonous one (eating one of them wouldn’t kill anyone, but would leave them with stomach pains for hours, but eating a lot of them… wouldn’t end well). After listening to the extensive explanation, Felix tried to help, but ended up asking Ashe again after every mushroom he picked up, if it was not a poisonous one. This situation was kind of amusing, Ashe was smiling a lot – Felix didn’t like being the one asking questions all the time, but he tried his best. Ashe also found some herbs “to season the food!”, he already had some dishes in mind. Felix picked some berries, maybe as a dessert? He was not really sure. After seeing that Ashe was the right person for this task, he wanted to contribute somehow as well. First he had been annoyed, sure, that he even had to do this, but now, well, he had learned something. And also getting to know Ashe better hadn’t been that bad. Felix saw the sudden shift in Ashe, before asking about the mushrooms, the archer had been cautious, but after sitting on the ground with him for a while busy with explaining something he was passionate about, he let excitement take over. 

And even though Felix felt like an idiot by asking the dumbest questions (which Ashe all answered earnestly), it was interesting to meet someone like Ashe. 

They faced their first problem when their baskets were full – one with mushrooms, the other with diverse other vegetables, fruit and herbs. 

“Have you… Do you know how we get back?” asked Ashe, quiet, embarrassed, having forgotten the happiness of being able to use his knowledge of the various forgeable goods. This was the second time Felix felt like a fool on this day. In the beginning when he had been on the lookout for fresh meat, he had been staying sure to know where they went and how to get back. But in the process of listening to Ashe and searching for other stuff – he kind of got lost. 

Ashe looked on the bright side, after not getting an answer: “Well okay, that’s not too bad. I mean, we learned about this, didn’t we?” 

Felix shrugged, survival training wasn’t his favorite thing. 

“I guess we just go back a bit, search for the tree where we left Mercie and Sylvain and maybe they are still there… And if not, we will see where they took wood, right?” Ashe asked and Felix nodded. So they searched for that – concentrated, trying to find their way back to camp.

They walked around for maybe half an hour. It was still day, it would be for quite some time, but Felix felt Ashe getting antsy, like he was scared of never escaping these woods again. Ashe took his surroundings in, got frightened more easily by rustling and started to either chatter about meaningless things or say absolutely nothing for a few minutes before talking again. 

“It will be okay.” was something Ingrid would say, so he said it to Ashe, which prompted a surprised expression, but his fear wasn’t subsided. 

“They will look if we take too long, don’t you think?” the archer asked Felix. 

“Probably. But we will find it before they have to, believe me.” Felix wasn’t too keen on being the one they had to search for in the forest.

But they made it out. First Ashe was happy. Just to dampen it right afterwards, they came out on a completely different side than anticipated. 

“Well at least we know where we are now…” Felix said, looking at the monastery looming in the distance, seeing some Wyvern Riders up there. They had walked farther away from the monastery, their camp laid between them and the building. They could already see the pond in the distance, he could make out two people sitting at the pier, probably fishing. Ashe sighed. 

“We would have made it out anyway.” Felix felt the need to say. 

“Yes, that is true. But still… A scary situation. Imagine if it had gone dark.” 

They were walking back to the others, baskets full of foraged goods, Felix was glad, these baskets were work that could be shown off. It would be enough for them all to eat even without any fish or meat. He tried to distract himself with these thoughts, since Ashe had said relievedly: “At least we were not alone.”. This sentence stayed with Felix for a while. When they joined up with the others, Dedue, Ashe and Mercedes started to cook together (under Manuelas supervision), while the others could lazily sit around the campfire. Felix didn’t listen to Sylvain’s stories about whatever, because he was confused (even though he also didn’t listen under normal circumstances). He was not very nice, he knew that people weren’t sure how to interact with him, he wasn’t the most sociable person – but he tried to be friendlier, if just a little. Ashe had been scared or at least a bit fearful (in the beginning). But had Felix really helped that much that the smaller one had been … happy maybe? Or that he had felt safe?

When all the food was cooked and seasoned (there were plenty of fish), they were all sitting around the campfire under the stars. 

“So romantic, yes?” Sylvain said while nudging Mercedes, who was too polite to say anything against it, so Felix sighed out loud and made fun of Sylvain with Ingrid. While sharing the meal, they also talked about their tasks and experiences of the day. 

“What was easy, what needs improvement?” was Byleth’s question. Short and quick as always. Manuela on the other hand was very cheerful and excited to hear everyone’s stories. 

“Well Mercedes and I just got the best wood, right? And so much of it, I think it all was possible because of her efforts.” 

“Oh Sylvain.” muttered Ingrid from the other side, but loud enough to hear for everyone. 

“It is difficult,” said Mercedes, not giving Sylvain any attention, “I am weak – no, I am easily tired by working with the axe, maybe I need to train more with weapons…” 

Then she was lost in thought. Dimitri was mostly quiet, while Annette explained their challenges with setting up the camp – apparently Byleth had not been much help, just standing back and giving some tips, but seeing both of them being a bit clumsy… Well, their camp stood, but it wasn’t pretty to look at. Ingrid and Dedue’s fishing had brought up a few big ones, Ingrid was matter of fact by recalling their work. Felix sensed bad blood – she didn’t seem to like him. Weird, since Ingrid did her best to like people – or so Felix thought. 

“And you, how was foraging?” asked Manuela.

Ashe looked to Felix, asking for help maybe? Or not knowing what to say. Felix sighed, does he have to save everyone today? 

“Foraging was swift – Ashe knows what is healthy or is anyone feeling unwell?” he asked around, but even if anyone wouldn’t feel well, they probably wouldn’t dare to say something to his face.

“We got lost though,” muttered Ashe, but then exclaimed fast, “but got out quick!” 

Byleth nodded. Manuela chimed in: “Ah yes, you need to be sure to know the way always! We used Ariadne's Threats with the other group but oh well… it was not so good.” 

Even on Byleth’s face there was a hint of amusement, but it was short lived: “You need to be aware of your surroundings in these parts. Search for noticeable trees or mark them in a real life survival situation.” 

Manuela had the last word after everyone had shared their thoughts. In a celebratory tone, she said: “Well, you worked together very great I think. And no one was hurt or having disputes, right?” 

She looked around and no one said anything, until Sylvain said: “I was happy with my partner.”

“Yes! That is the spirit.”

\--

It was only natural, Felix thought, that he saw Ashe more often after the camping trip. He had shown himself to be a good capable teammate and also they were in the same class, so it was given that they spent more time together. They started to study together sometimes, either alone or with Ingrid and Sylvain. Oftentimes Linhardt kept them company, or Annette. (Since catching her singing, she avoided Felix) On rare occasions, Leonie sat with them and helped out or asked many questions. She was very eager to learn from other perspectives. Ashe liked to study late at night, because at this time the library was mostly empty, and he could read some novels, after studying. Felix joined him often due to being at the training grounds all day. Mostly they sat opposite each other, everyone doing their thing, being immersed in their weekly work. Once Ashe fell asleep while reading one of his knight novels and was nudged back into reality by Felix. 

“Time to go?” Ashe was asked. Felix's face normally showed little emotion, but there was something similar to a smile. 

“How long did I sleep?” he still was a bit confused. He felt pretty groggy, the library normally closed around midnight. Looking around he could see the usual people staying late – Leonie and Linhardt sitting together, talking quietly (or rather: Leonie talking quietly moving her hands around and Linhardt sitting there, eyes barely open), on the other side was Raphael sitting alone, immersed in some kind of old book (he really did try his best to get more knowledgeable) and also Caspar who was walking back and forth probably on the search for some book. 

“Half an hour…,” answered Felix, “I tried to wake you before, but you wanted to sleep for good.”

“We’re doing archery training with Shamir in the morning. Maybe I shouldn’t stay here so late every day…” muttered Ashe. He loved the library, really. Especially in the evenings, it was just cozy. But it seemed to be time to pack up. 

“Are you… done as well?” he asked Felix. The other one had closed all his books, and was ready to go. They made their way back together, at least for the little part of way they could share. This way back was such a mundane moment, Ashe had talked about the book he currently was reading, prompted on by Felix to talk about a dumb side plot where the main characters stole a mule, when he realized that he could consider Felix a friend. 

\---

On a particularly cold day, he shared a meal with Ingrid and Sylvain – sometimes they were almost glued together. Professor Byleth saw them and asked if they could eat with them, which was always a question met with many different ways of saying “yes”. It only took one second until Sylvain asked about the camping trip from the Golden Deer, but the professor didn’t mind and just replied: “Interesting”

“Any problems or were they the best?” asked Sylvain. Ingrid muttered something about him making competitions out of everything, but Sylvain talked over her: “I heard Raphael was fishing and didn’t catch any.” 

The professor, surprisingly, did nod. ”That is the truth, Raphael and Hilda weren’t the most skilled fishers. But Ignatz shot a boar.”

Sylvain could only dumbly say: “A what now?”

Byleth was nodding again. “Leonie and Ignatz figured that there wouldn’t be any fish to eat, so they started to hunt.” 

They didn’t seem too impressed, but Ashe could see a little hint of pride, if he squinted. 

Sylvain laughed, having forgotten about his food completely: “If Felix gets wind of this... I love Ignatz really. We should swap the two.”

He probably couldn’t wait to bring this news to his friend. But Ingrid changed the subject: “Talking about swapping, I heard Linhardt is changing houses.”

That was news to Ashe. It made sense, after hearing of his fall out with Hubert – if they ever had been friends before, he did not know. But was that enough to change houses completely? 

“Yes he did ask me.” Since Byleth was done with this conversation apparently, Sylvain asked again: “And?” 

Byleth shrugged. “It's my first time here, Manuela will take care of it.” 

“I hope he wants to join us.” Ingrid said, a small smile on her lips.

\--

Archery lessons with Shamir were hard. He wasn’t alone with that sentiment: Ignatz, Bernadetta and Claude were in the same boat, also complaining loudly afterwards. Leonie did only tag along in the beginning, until she decided on only doing lance training, stopping archery completely. Shamir did not just take them to the training grounds, no, that would be too easy. Most of the time they had to wake up early in the morning, while it was still dark, get out of the monastery gates and shoot targets that got smaller with every training lesson. After three mornings like this, Shamir didn’t bring targets anymore, but wanted them to shoot bugs. Bernadetta shot a dragonfly one day and Shamir seemed very pleased. These lessons in the morning once or twice a week left Ashe exhausted (and also guilty after killing all these harmless bugs), but he couldn’t linger on that too long, since they still had class and other duties afterwards. 

On one particularly warm day, their routine was broken: Usually the four went to breakfast together when Shamir dismissed them, but since it had rained the days before, they needed to clean up. Claude had fallen into the mud and Ashe had tried to help him up, which resulted in both of them sitting on the dirty ground. 

“Whoops, sorry.” was all Claude said, still grinning. Even Shamir had the tiniest smile on her face seeing them laughing, muddy and exhausted. The two took some longer time to get back, due to a short cleaning session in a nearby river, but when they entered the monastery grounds, they met Raphael who seemed bummed out that they didn’t invite him to “mug catching”. Most of them didn’t get breakfast that day. Well, worse things could have happened. Ashe had fun with them, it was nice to have this special training with someone who knew their craft that well. They also made an interesting team like this, learning from each other and getting through this together. He enjoyed this time he was away from the Blue Lions, with some other people around and having this little special treatment. 

\--

On one of their free days, Sylvain had called for an “emergency meeting”. Dimitri had approached Ashe and Felix while they were sharing one of Mercedes’ creations on the training grounds. Ashe hadn’t really trained that day, he had been on his way to the greenhouse, until Mercedes stopped him to give him a packet of sweet buns to share with others. His first thought had been to bring one to Dedue, but he could hear noises coming from the training grounds. There he had met Felix training, as usual. At first he didn’t seem too interested in taking Mercedes' gift from Ashe (there was even a hint of skepticism), but tried then anyway, due to needing a break. Dimitri had interrupted that break to take them to their classroom, where everyone but Ingrid and Sylvain were already sitting and chatting. Ashe took the opportunity to give out some of the sweet buns to everyone Mercedes hadn’t met yet. 

“If I had known that we would meet here, I would’ve baked more!” Mercedes exclaimed, being happy for all the praise she got from her baking skills. Ashe sat down, and with Felix opposite him, he noticed something was different. Felix seemed happy…? Not smiling-happy, but calm-happy. Did that make sense? Felix mustered him, probably confused by Ashes’ scrunching up of his nose while thinking, but that moment was cut short, when Sylvain dragged Ingrid into the room and closed the door. 

“We are all going to die.” he said.

“It is not that dire.” Ingrid replied, sighing. Sighing was something often heard from her when Sylvain was close. 

Dimitri joined in: “What is so important that you have to gather us all here?” 

Even their house leader wasn’t informed about the situation. Ingrid sat down next to Ashe with an audible thump, and a sigh. “This one is driving me crazy one day.” 

Ashe tried to give her a reassuring smile and offered her the baked goods. 

“Professor Byleth did the unspeakable, no, the most terrible decision anyone has ever made in the history of mankind.” 

Ashe had seen the professor standing at the pier and fishing, so nothing unspeakable and terrible there. 

“Come on, get to the point.” Felix threw in, interrupting Sylvain in his tale.

Sylvain had a serious look on his face. “Do you remember that every house needs a representative for the White Heron Cup dance thing whatever?” he reminded everyone, even though they all were well aware. 

Dimitri seemed scared – so it was dire. “Someone was chosen?” 

When Sylvain nodded, Dimitri was continuing: “The professor came to me a few days ago, to ask for my advice on who would be the best choice. I was put on the spot, so I suggested asking for volunteers. I thought Annette would be a great match.”

Anette, sitting next to Dedue pouted a bit, when she heard the news. “No the prof never came up to me, bummer… I would have won, just so you know.” 

Ashe knew – Annette gave him dancing lessons, so in his opinion she would’ve been the best match. But then he remembered. “I was asked,” he said, “but declined.” He didn’t feel like his skill level was high enough to do something like this. Everyone else already seemed to have learned how to dance with their noble upbringing and all… He still needed to practice a lot. 

“And no one else was asked?” Sylvain asked the group, no one said anything, Dimitri looked at the ground. 

After a beat of silence, Mercedes quietly asked: “So… No one participates?”

Sylvain shook his head, slowly. “Our lovely professor first asked Ashe, and him being the shy little cute thing we love, said no. So the professor went to find someone else. But there was someone else, a new addition to our class.” Sylvain told the story, putting a little pause before continuing, “Byleth accidentally ran into Flayn. And she even asked herself if she could do it.”

Then it dawned on the rest of them. Flayn was added as a new student to their class, she joined around two weeks prior to this little meeting. She was also missing that moment. The place where she usually sat seemed glaringly empty.

Dedue’s confusion was only shown in his face for a second while he asked: “If she does like to dance, why should we not give her the chance? Should we not be grateful?”

“Ha.” Sylvain almost shouted.

“Oh you are so annoying,” Ingrid said, “Flayn is going to dance, and she will win, I think. But even if she doesn’t, afterwards, she can pursue to be a dancer. And I talked to her. She is really happy to help, since we already have Mercedes healing us, Flayn would love to fill that gap in our class.”

Mercedes joined Dedue’s confusion: “Isn’t that nice? Why is it a problem?”

Dimitri looked up again. “Seteth is going to be mad.” He seemed more relieved of not having to be the dancer than he was scared of Seteth. 

But Sylvain jumped to his side, while exclaiming way too dramatically: “No, Seteth is going to kill Byleth, and then he is going to kill every one of us who sees Flayn dance.”

“He is not like that, come on,” Ingrid said while getting another bun, “He is … protective, sure, but Flayn will talk to him.”

“We are going to die, I tell you,” Sylvain said pointing overdramatically at her, “How are we going to be motivated or whatever when she dances, when we will be so scared that we cannot move?”

After deciding that their fate hadn't been sealed (maybe Byleth’s end was near, but that was to be seen), the Blue Lions (minus Sylvain) decided that Sylvain was never allowed to call an emergency meeting again. The meeting was quickly turned into a little tea time, while they ate the last baked buns together, talking about the upcoming events. Ashe was grateful to spend time with them, considering them more and more as friends and feeling like he had found his place. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading so far! 
> 
> i like to think that people from all houses do stuff together, so there's some archery training with my bestie shamir


End file.
